The present invention relates to communication cable termination devices and, more particularly, to optical fiber repair apparatus and methods for using the same.
An extensive infrastructure supporting telecommunication has been developed, traditionally based upon copper wire connections between individual subscribers and telecommunications company network distribution points. More recently, much of the telecommunications network infrastructure is being extended or replaced with an optical fiber based communications network infrastructure. Fiber optic cables are widely used for telecommunications applications where high information capacity, noise immunity and other advantages of optical fibers may be exploited. Fiber cable architectures are emerging for connecting homes and/or business establishments, via optical fibers, to a central location, for example.
A typical main fiber optic cable may be installed underground and have multiple drop cables connected thereto, each of a hundred feet or more. Each of the drop cables, in turn, is routed to an optical network unit (ONU) serving several homes. Accordingly, information may be transmitted optically to the ONU, and into the home via conventional copper cable technology. Thus, the drop cables may serve groups of users, although other architectures may also employ a main cable and one or more drop cables connected thereto.
Unfortunately, the fibers within the main cable must typically be accessed at the various drop points and spliced to respective drop cables after the main cable has already been installed. Accessing the main cable for splicing generally requires careful preparation of the main cable including removing a portion of the cable sheath, and identifying and separating out predetermined fibers from within the cable without disturbing adjacent fibers. The separated fibers may then be spliced and secured within a conventional protective splice closure. Moreover, these cable access and splicing steps must typically be accomplished in the field by a technician who is likely to experience difficulties imposed by weather or the particular location of each of the drop points. Accordingly, field splicing of drop cables to a main cable may be time consuming, expensive, and may produce low quality optical splices.
In addition to drop point termination splicing operations, the installed optical fiber cables may be subject to damage over time. For example, a drop cable could be inadvertently cut with a resulting loss of service over the optical fibers therein. Rather than replace the cabling infrastructure to repair the damage, the cut drop cable may be repaired by cleaving and splicing the severed ends of the optical fibers in the drop cable. However, in addition to the problems discussed above with drop point termination splicing operations, difficulties may be encountered in physically connecting ends of a cut optical fiber based on available length of fiber on each end and limitations on the ability to move the respective ends into an adjacent position for splicing and then to return the repaired cable into use without damaging the optical fiber(s).